


Beautiful Dancer

by MarcellaEReeves



Series: Fragments [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fighting Kink, M/M, Memories, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 18:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12174045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarcellaEReeves/pseuds/MarcellaEReeves
Summary: Shiro had always thought Keith was beautiful when he fought. In the defence classes or against the Altean gladiators.





	Beautiful Dancer

**Author's Note:**

> I found this on my HDD. Enjoy.

The grace in Keith's form was apparent when he danced. Catlike movements of lithe sinews and muscles as he moved, each movement ending in a form poised to make the next strike or counter, Bayard slipping between armoured plates of the gladiator before it disintegrated. 

Shiro wanted more.

‘Practice level 4’

Faintly aware of Pidge's eyes slipping to his face, he chose to ignore her and instead focused on the way the Red Paladin's shoulders relaxed as the level 4 gladiator appeared before him. The dance began again.   
  
They were in the training room, Shiro stood whilst the others sat on the stairs leading down to the ring. His arms folded whilst metallic fingers tapped subconsciously against his elbow. He closed his eyes to try and relax, and instead ended up remembering how Keith had behaved in training before, a lifetime ago.

The first time Shiro had seen him fight.  


 

  
_He knew Keith had an issue with following instructions correctly. His file was littered with black marks as proof, and Shiro had asked for permission to mentor him specifically with the hope that he could save him from expulsion. He’d had been asked if he knew what he was getting himself into - Kogane was referred to as a time bomb - but Shiro had insisted. His request was informally denied, Iverson’s attempt at protecting his career until their after-hours encounters on the simulation decks had started yielding results. Cadet Kogane was more focused and compliant than anyone in the facility had ever seen him, and when the catalyst of that change had turned out to be Lt. Shirogane, Iverson decided to acquiesce. Shiro had been over the moon; Kogane’s raw skill and determination needed to be kindled. Both for the sake of the Garrison and for Keith’s own future. He’d been over the moon, that was, until he saw how the boy struggled to counter against even a simple throw. Shiro could handle the disciplinary issues if there was at least some talent to back it up, but he wasn’t seeing anything yet._  
  
_He could see the frustration and anger growing in Keith’s eyes as Montgomery berated him again._  
  
_‘Kogane, stop trying to drop out of stance!’_  
  
_This couldn’t be the same Kogane, Keith that would have beaten his M560214 simulation scores had he not ignored flight command’s instructions. An unsalvageable mission designed to test how a pilot could cope with having to make decisions that cost lives. Kogane somehow saved all the stranded colonists and his crew despite the simulation being programmed for that outcome to be impossible. But the victory had come by ignoring flight regulations and mission control, and he only avoided killing them all by a whisker._

_ Seeing his scores, Shiro had questioned if he’d skipped class when they met for their nightly run, only to be told his instructor had “Given me 0 for breaking the rules and actually saving people. Guess you can put a price on life.”  
_

_Perhaps his only talent was piloting. And yet, that didn’t feel right as he watched Kogane instinctively dodge an attack only to be berated again._  
  
_Perhaps The Garrison wasn't getting the best from the teenager…_  
  
_‘Cadet!’ Kogane’s eyes snapped to him, but Shiro couldn’t fully read his expression, only the defeat. ‘If that isn’t working for you, find something that does.’_

 _Kogane looked between him and Montgomery, and Shiro shot him an encouraging smile which seemed to settle whichever internal dilemma the youth had. He nodded back at Shiro and stood, forcing himself to relax._  
  
_Takashi Shirogane hadn’t been expecting what he saw then. His breath escaped him faster than Kogane’s sparring partner hit the floor._

 

 

He’d had felt like a voyeur that first time, and he felt like even more of one this time. Though Shiro could safely pretend he had altruistic intentions - he’d pushed them all through training simulations, testing their capabilities. They were less competent than four people he’d want to have fighting in a ten-thousand-year-old intergalactic war, but then again, if he could pick and choose, he’d never be able to imagine a war machine like Voltron either.   
  
Hunk was clutching his stomach. Shiro knew the pain was from having his vulnerable stomach touched rather than any physical trauma. Being linked to a giant robot lion would do that to a person, and Shiro put his folded arms a little lower protectively. Lance was also sulking - at being hit and probably because Keith had already beaten his training level.  
  
Pidge… he’d ended the simulation just before the gladiator could land the final blow, something he’d not done for the other two and he could tell it was bothering her. Shiro knew it was selfish, and he regretted the split-second decision, but he wanted to protect her from harm, even if he knew it would be a lesson unlearned.  
  
He’d talk to her later. But for now…

‘Load a second gladiator.’

Shiro felt all of the other paladin’s shocked eyes on him and winced when Keith was hit in the leg. He watched Keith refocus on the fight, unaware that his breathing was shallowing again, eyes dilating slightly. Keith was devastating with his beauty, each movement calculated and deadly. He might not have been the most technically perfect fighter Shiro had ever seen, or the strongest or the most skilled, but he made fighting look more like a dance than anyone else Shiro had ever seen, and he greedily consumed the imagery presenting itself to him.  


The addition of a second gladiator made the whole scene more erotic, and Shiro had trouble holding focus on anything other than the sways and curves of Keith’s dance. Every twist of his Bayard seemed intentionally sensual and designed to excite as well as maim. Shiro wet his lip with his tongue as his lower gut clenched. Perhaps introducing two gladiators wasn’t the brightest idea he’d ever had, not when he was so publicly exposed. He bit down on his lower lip to try and ground himself.   
  
The purpose of the training session was for the evaluation of skill, and yet when it came to Keith, his technical skill had been the last thing Shiro had been evaluating. When Keith finally plunged his Bayard into the second gladiator’s chest and then kicked it towards the first before following the motion and using the distraction to finish the first, a pained noise managed to escape Shiro’s throat. He failed to notice Pidge glancing up at him again, or the confirmation that seemed to settle across her face.  
  
He also failed to notice Keith was staring at him, lost as he was in his own salacious thoughts.

‘Shiro? Are you okay?’ The level of concern in Keith’s question sounded painful, and Shiro dragged his mind from where it had wandered so he could form some semblance of his normal self. It didn’t help that Keith was watching him with the same kind of scrutiny he’d been subjected to after he’d had his first, very public “episode” against the gladiator when Allura had tried to get them to form Voltron on command like trained dogs. 

‘I’m fine Keith.’ His voice was rough, and he cleared his throat to try and shift it, smiling at the Red Paladin after he did so to put the other at ease. ‘Great work today team, now we’ve gotten a good idea of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, we can start working to overcome them and build a more cohesive unit.’ Already he could see Voltron’s arms coming to harass him, both wanting conversations he wasn’t willing to hold just yet. Instead, he took the coward’s way out. ‘Everyone take a break before lunch, and we’ll regroup after to start training properly.’ 

That was the best chance he was going to get to make a break for it. Pidge and Keith both had to get over Lance and Hunk, as both of them had chosen to sit next to his feet. Willing the familiarity, he guessed. Shiro slipped through the door, ignoring how Allura seemed to be surprised that the door opened before she’d managed to raise her hand to the panel. He brushed past her, throwing her a forced smile before disappearing down the hallway. Hopefully, she wanted the other Paladins and he could use it to put an even bigger distance between himself and the memory of Keith’s dancing. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi! I don't bite~
> 
> Tumblr: marcellaereeves.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: twitter.com/MarcellaEReeves


End file.
